A ‘different kind of Republican’

May 31, 2008

It’s become quite entertaining to highlight John McCain’s similarities with Still-President Bush, on everything from the major policy issues to the identical words they use to describe various challenges.

But I can’t help but notice that McCain isn’t just eerily similar to the president, he’s also following the strategy Bush used eight years ago.

John McCain is planning to send a message that he’s “a different kind of Republican” as he fully opens up a general-election campaign against Barack Obama. […]

“He’s a different kind of Republican,” spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said. “We’ve made that point from the beginning of this election and we’ll continue to make it.”

Yes, a “different kind of Republican.” We’ve been hearing that quite a bit. The WaPo reported about a month ago, “As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue their battle for the Democratic nomination, John McCain is embarked this week on a tour designed to persuade the country that he is ‘a different kind of Republican.'”

Around the same time, several reporters started echoing the talking point on McCain’s behalf. NBC’s David Gregory argued, “There’s no question, you know, this does appear to be a Democratic year, but the Republicans, I think, were smart to nominate John McCain because he’s not your average Republican.”

If all of this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason.

Here’s an interesting item from the New York Times in June 2000:

Gov. George W. Bush continued yesterday to present himself as a ”different kind of Republican,” describing an immigrant-friendly approach to the bureaucratic Immigration and Naturalization Service and making a broad appeal to black voters in an address in Manhattan. […]

”It’s outreach,” Mr. Fleischer said. ”It’s the governor following through on his promise that the Republican Party has to be the party of inclusion, for single moms, for new citizens coming to America. It’s different from a lot of the sights and sounds that people have been hearing from the Republican Party in recent years.”

And here’s another NYT item from September 2000.

Just before Mr. Bush started campaigning on Monday, his aides informed reporters that he would be showing up as ”a different kind of Republican,” which is what he was in the spring as well.

In October 2000, after a presidential debate, the WaPo’s Jim Hoagland noted:

“The one surprising moment for me was when Governor Bush started talking about debt relief for third world countries. This is not a traditional Republican theme. And I think what he was trying to do there and succeeded to some extent, was to show that he is a different kind of Republican.”

The Republican brand wasn’t especially strong eight years ago, so Bush worked diligently to con voters into thinking it was all right to vote for him, despite his party, because he was “a different kind of Republican.”

Eight years later, the GOP is held in even lower regard, following two terms of failures, scandals, tragedies, and humiliations. So what is John McCain doing to separate himself from George W. Bush? He’s using the exact same line Bush used in 2000 under slightly different circumstances.

What’s that line Bush made famous? “Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, can’t get fooled again.”

And an AWOL alcoholic/cocaine addict that would rather snort whiskey and drink cocaine is not your “average” republican candidate either – but it made him a “war president.”

  • Don’t see how you can state “Republican brand wasn’t especially strong eight years ago” – they were still riding the wave from when they took over congress in an unprecidented fashion while clinton was president.

    Yes, the brand was being tarnished because they we such obnoxious obstructionists and the clinton impeachment did not make them look good.

    “Different republican”? All that really matters are voting records – last year mclame voted with dur chimpfurher 100% of the time and is consistently in the 90s.

    No real difference there.

  • The republicans are toast this year. McCain has no chance. One thing that could change things and give them a fighting chance is if Hilary refuses to quit

  • I think the time has come where any gooper is a bad gooper; whether they are good, bad or ugly (well, two out of three ain’t bad – can’t find too much good in the goop these days).

    Thankfully, YouTube refutes this whole Different Kind of Gooper meme; tosses it right out the window.

  • Little Bear:

    Unlike Maria and the other “concerned Democrats” here, I enjoy your energy and you do see things right and cut through the crap of the pompous morons. That said, as someone who uses words for a living, I really would like to suggest that all the “funny little names” – which I will tell you I was using myself 4 years ago – really do get in the way of your otherwise-intelligent analysis. People had to tell me the same thing.

    Best regards…

  • Tom Cleaver, quote of the day…“a different kind of Republican” is like arguing that light brown shit is different from dark brown shit. It’s still shit.

    That about says it all…thanks

  • The corporate media ala david ‘swollen lips’ gregory just can’t help themselves and their fucking lies and propaganda .. they just can’t … what fucking evil scum they are ..even when they get exposed they just keep doing what they do ..

  • I wonder if they should bring up the fact that someone a few years ago was offering “compassionate conservatism” as a way to reach out to non-core republicans and moderate dems…

    Well, how does that compassion look in retrospect? Sure didn’t do much for Katrina victims. And sure as hell doesnt look too compassionate to the 100s of thousands of Iraqi refugees, or the thousands more who are now dead.

    Now with McCain, we have the same sort of bamboozlement going on. But worse still, we have the media helping the process along, by continuing to push the ridiculousless of McCain being a “maverick” or some such thing, when his voting record clearly shows he is nothing of the sort, and in fact is extremely conservative. Furthermore,on the issues he was supposed to be so iconoclastic about, eg. campaign finance, etc, he is starting to be shown to be a complete fraud. He’s up to his ears in the worst sort of lobbyists.

    And the Phil Gramm thing, well, they should drive that nail home again and again.

    And if anyone had missed the point about the age of our Supreme Court justices and what it would mean to have a McCain choose the new ones. Yikes.

    And everyday, I still run into people who try to make the argument that McCain isnt the second coming of George Bush. Clearly, we arent gettting the facts out well enough. I’d say that YouTube vid I saw yesterday with 1.5 mil others was a good start, but that message needs to be made even clearer and brought more into the mainstream.

  • So the Republicans are banking on:
    Greed (their tax-cut, we don’t want to pay our bills constituency);
    Democrat-hate, always part of their base;
    Culture war (bet on gay marriage prominence again this year); and
    Outright stupidity and ignorance of the past.

    Well, that’s still a lot of Americans, sad to say.

    Still, if gas is over $3.50 a gallon, the Iraq war can crack the Corp Media (unlike the last 2 weeks), and people keep losing their homes and jobs, that won’t be enough to stop the Democrats.

    So, let’s all be prepared for the Corp Media to remember their job (well, at least investigating Democrats) after early November. Get the fainting couches ready for the phony outrages (WWII camps, anyone?), and be prepared to hear 4 (or more) years of whining from the other side. As much as I will hate that constant crap, it will be so much better to start moving back to the positive force that America can be.

    And Tom C – Brilliant!

  • The Republican “brand” would resemble a severe case of erectile dysfunction at this point. One could almost see Hillary usurping McCain and running as “a different kind of Republican”. Then Clinton and Obama could carry on until November.

    Every day I am more amazed at McCain’s total lameness as a candidate. He seems to be running a campaign in a parallel universe somewhere, but here in the reality based community everything he says seems to be another attempt to be more irrelevant.

    “We have drawn down the soldiers to pre surge levels”.

    The future is the same thing as the past, no need to even have verb tenses, they is so pre911.

  • I think the time has come where any gooper is a bad gooper; whether they are good, bad or ugly (well, two out of three ain’t bad – can’t find too much good in the goop these days).

    Couldn’t agree more. I’m not one for using the polling booth to send a message but, dammit, sometimes a message needs to be sent. Good or bad I don’t think I can bring myself to vote for a single republican this election barring the slim possibility that the only alternative is straight-jacket crazy.

    Makes things a bit interesting around the family dinner table when my grandmother is running for county office on the republican ticket, let me tell ya 😉

  • Darian, there are times that holding ones tongue is a stellar idea. In your case, dinnertime would be a prudent option for ya (unless you’re wanting to be wearing said dinner 😀 )

  • I must respectfully disagree. There are those whose antipathy to the Democratic party is founded on an irrational fear (possibly originating in the womb, where their mothers were frightened by a picture of Mayor Daly of Chicago or some other politician) — which does not make them “bad.” Irrational, yes, and, in their fear, capable of working evil, and certainly not pleasant company, but these are not evil people, merely pathetic.

    Just as all that is Democratic is not “good”.

  • “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — can’t get fooled again.”

    Fixed to more closely replicate actual sound bite.

    Long pauses added to indicate that even though he took the time to think about it, the dumbass still couldn’t get the quote right.

  • Well, I’m going to have to agree – McCain is a different kind of Repub.

    Just when every Repub with a dollop of sense is running from Bush and what he’s done – McCain is actively trying to out Bush the man himself!

    Now that’s different! Insane maybe, but different.

  • In 2000, Bush was a different kind of Republican becfause we clearly didn’t want a Republican like Bob Dole.
    In 2008, McCain is a different kind of Republican becfause we clearly didn’t want a Republican like George Bush.

    If we didn’t like the Dole kind, and the Bush kind blows too….

    You know,… electing Republicans strikes me as being a lot like the Harry Potter characters eating those “every flavor jellybeans”
    I mean, sure, maybe some of ’em are GREAT, but after you’ve had an earwax flavor, and a shoe polish flavor, and an armpit sweat flavor jellybean,… isn’t it time you consider just not eating the jellybeans at all when other snacks tend to be more reliably tasty?

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